It goes without saying that Dan Burn had a disastrous afternoon in Saturday’s 4-4 draw with Luton.
Chiedozie Ogbene had the beating of him every time, he gave away a penalty and lost the ball in the build-up to their fourth before he was replaced by Tino Livramento.
However, there was so much more to our defensive fragility than just Burn. Yes, he’s been targeted a few times now – Nottingham Forest got a lot of joy down his side on Boxing Day – but our midfield looked wide open once again.
We saw major improvements at Aston Villa, where they go so little joy in central areas, yet it’s becoming a theme at St James’ Park to see visiting sides cut through out midfield three on the counter. Joelinton’s power, physicality and disruptive ball-winning ability was a huge miss, while the pace, athleticism and ball-carrying ability of Joe Willock is something we’re also crying out for.
Sean Longstaff and Lewis Miley are very capable players, but stylistically they are very similar, while Bruno – for all of this quality – is not known for his pace or athleticism. We found the balance at Villa with that trio, but we were found wanting against a Luton side who were able to break away all too easily, seeing Ross Barkley run riot at times.
I’m sure we’d have brought in a midfield spoiler or dynamic No 8 had finances allowed it last month, it’s just a worry to see us cut open so easily at St James’ Park.
Livramento in for Burn is an obvious switch, especially for those ‘winnable’ home games, but striking the right balance in midfield also feels key, whether that’s tweaking for the formation or changing personnel.
With Joelinton out for the forseeable future, Willock’s return can’t come quick enough.
It is obvious that the midfield needs a no. 6 or destroyer but apart from Joelinton we have no destroyer available.
The problem is Howe won’t change from his 4 3 3 system, he said he needed Burn on for height against Luton attack, and watched games against Forest, Luton and later against Villa where Burns was skinned.
The solution if he wanted his height at the back was three at the back Trippier and Livramento as wing backs with Murphy and Gordon up front on Saturday.
Until we get players like Willock and Joelinton back who have a real engine the midfield needs shoring up.
The reaction of the fans was telling on Saturday, they could see it Howe couldn’t or wouldn’t and took no action until the damage was done.
Joseph(Quote)
The problems are less about individuals than the team as a whole are not at the levels of last year. They were always better than the sum of their parts and this year that’s less consistent and they have injuries compounding it.
Setting up to contain and exploit villa and Fulham was a good plan.
They could be disciplined in attacking and hold shape.
Setting up to swarm Luton backfired as that requires discipline attacking which they lost and is a high risk approach anyways. They reverted to a very soft centre and the defence were exposed
So yea I concur Howe needs to reconsider his approach tho I doubt it’s as simple as individuals.
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
The main issue as we know is the midfield does not protect the defence. As good as Miley and Longstaff are, they have no pace and no tenacity. They are players that try and retain possession and maintain shape but cannot win the ball back or recover in transition. Bruno also has no pace so we clearly miss Big Joe and Little Joe who give us a different dimension no to mention an engine in the midfield. But they are injured, so we have to move on.
But the glaring tactical issue that Eddie Howe is oblivious to at the moment Dan Burn has no pace and is getting exposed against speedy wingers. Perversely, he does not get exposed against the top sides and has played really well against Salah, Saka, Bailey, Foden etc. However, he has been getting completely exposed and roasted by average players on the break against teams like Luton, Forest, Everton and Bournemouth !
Why ?
Because against those lower sides, we play in the ascendancy and they play on the break. Therefore in transition the opposition only have one tactic which is to launch the ball over Dan Burn’s head, make him turn and you’re away. Against the top sides, we concede possession and drop into a mid to low block so Dan Burn only has to defend a 35 yard space at the most which he does very well regardless of pace.
There is a simple solution to minimize risk…………….and that is to play Livermento against all the so called lower sides whose tactics are to initially drop back and wait to counter. And hope the two Joes return from injury quickly !
Sims(Quote)